Royal Criollo Cacao of Xoconusco - The Mayan network of organic organizations

This grower association consists of 1,500 small scale, certified organic, indigenous Mayan growers. It is a member of the International Federation of Alternative Trade (IFAT) and certified organic by the institute of market ecology (IMO) from Switzerland and Quality Assurance International (QAI) from the USA.

The organization was founded by two environmental and social visionaries in the 1980's. Jose Caballero an agronomist and Jorge Aguilar a priest (at that time) worked together to champion the organic and fair trade movement amongst the indigenous mayan coffee growers in the Sierra Madres of Chiapas, Mexico. Jose Caballero would carry his slide projector and car battery on his back hiking for hours into the remote villages through the rugged mountain jungle terrain. After Jorge Aguilar gave his sermon in the local churches they would run workshops for the villagers on sustainable organic farming practices. Now Mexico, in particular Chiapas, is the largest producer of fair trade, shade grown, organic coffee in the world most of which comes from small scale indigenous growers.

The network of mayan growers they work with today is one of the largest indigenous grower associations in the world. Jose Caballero lives on a small cacahuatal (cocoa farm) and his passion is rescuing the original famous heirloom royal criollo variety of cacao from Xoconusco (Soconusco). This is the original heirloom variety of cacao that was first domesticated by the Olmecs, who preceded the Mayans over 2,000 years ago. According to the "Ture History of Chocolate" by Coe and Coe the region of Xoconusco had the most prized cacao in the Mayan and Aztec times. So much so that the variety of cacao from Xoconusco became known as royal cacao, because it was reserved for the royality of the Mayan and Aztec civilisations and later for the Spanish royality after the spanish conquest.

With the rapid commercialization of forestero cacao throughout the world and due to disease and destruction of native habitats the original royal criollo variety of cacao from Xoconusco has become extremely rare. Jose Caballero is currently working with a small group (approximately 40 families shown in the above picture at one of the workshops) of indigenous growers to rescue this original heirloom variety. This royal criollo cacao is shade grown under multi-story canopies that include fruit trees such as avocado, mango, caconut and papaya which all lend their distinctive nuances to the fine multi-floral flavor of this exquisite cacao.

Wild Maguey - Indigenous association of Ixmiquilpan

Grower with wild agave plant

In the region of Ixmiquilpan of central Mexico an indigenous group called the Hnahnu have been able to successfully commercialise agave syrup. This is a semi arid region and the main species of plant is the wild maguey (Agave salminae). In this area like many of the poorer areas of mexico a lot of the men had gone to the US to work and there were whole villages without any men. However now that the new industry of harvesting the nectar of the wild maguey and processing it into agave syrup has been established this has created sustainable income opportunities for the local men and women. They call the maguey el arbol de las maravillas (the tree of marvels) because they have been traditionally used for so many things. Traditionally they have made pulque from the nectar by just leaving it to ferment and this is considered to have powerful healing and aphrodisiac qualities. Some of the other products made from it include fibers for weaving, brushmaking and other crafts, construction materials, soap, paper etc. These plants literally litter the landscape for as far as the eye can see. Processing the nectar into agave is a relatively recent discovery and even though before that there was no real commercial value in the maguey, the people still invested time in caring for these wild plants because they had been so central to their culture for many years.

Association of Local Vanilla Producers of Papantla - Ejido primero de Mayo

Above : vanilla in Papantla Mexico

The association consists of indigenous Totonucan vanilla growers.

This association consists of indigenous Totonucan vanilla growers. The Totonucans were the people who first domesticated the vanilla vine in pre-hispanic times. Today they continue to grow their vanilla organically mainly on citrus trees. This system of organic production gives them several sources of income apart from the highly prized vanilla. They are certified organic by Certimex, an internationally recognized Mexican organic certification agency.